Mary Jane Dunphe is no stranger to the music underground from all corners. The NYC-based songwriter has, in past creative lives, lived in the tatters of Olympia’s punk scene with Vexx and Gen Pop, dreamweavers CCFX, and dancefloors as part of CC Dust before trailing her way to New York as part of the ragged post-country rockers County Liners. Stage of Love introduces Dunphe to the world as something altogether more singular and standing altogether on her own, however, and is truly one of the year’s most fascinating debuts from within the solo songwriter realm. You can at least credit that much to Dunphe’s past which have given her broad exposure across independent scenery, which in turn starts to make sense as to why she’s been asked to play in front of everyone from experimental pop gonzos Spirit of the Beehive, modern hardcore headliners Turnstile, and soon, Turnstile’s unpredictably “hardcore-adjacent” family members and her Pop Wig labelmates, Angel Du$t. Dunphe sounds nothing of those ilk here on Stage of Love, though. Her vision of avant-pop smears feelings of forlorn across heavy brush strokes of ’80s synth-pop, wild lines of amorphous guitar rock, and New Order-esque basslines that singe through the listen’s harnessing of self-preservation energy. The constantly evolving movements and colors within her sound radiate intense insularity as well as an ecstastic exorcism from it where dreams, nightmares, and real human desire coalesce with a common intent: To be loved, one must learn how to be alone before they can be with another. Stage of Love takes tally of every complex step to get that point, and arrives at the point of Dunphe being able to breathe on her own with or without anyone helping her.

Highlights: “Stage of Love”, “Moon Halo”, “Always Gonna Be the Same”

Mary Jane Dunphe’s Stage of Love is available now on Pop Wig.

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